Crabs??????

doorlady

doorlady

New member
How does everybody feel about crabs? We are considering an Emerald crab to help with green hair algae or maybe a Sally Lightfoot. I have read that they can kill and eat small fish, so that worries me.
 
The smaller the better for both types. More motivated to eat and less danger to fish. I haven't had a sally in years, but I never had one bug a fish. I'm sure that one would if it could, though. Crabs are pretty much omnivorous, opportunistic feeders.
 
Crabs are pretty much omnivorous, opportunistic feeders.
Click to expand...

That says it all. Any crab is a risk for eating something you like. But almost everything you add is a risk for something. Crabs are a big risk, but if you really like them...

That aside, I would not attempt to solve a problem with algae overgrowth with livestock. There's a root cause for it somewhere -- no doubt harder to find or you'd be on it already.
 
My emerald crabs have been behaving well. They eat green valonia (bubble algae) for me. I have seen them eat some hair algae as well. I don't have much hair algae at all, but there is a spot that sprouts hair algae from time to time when I overfeed. It also tells me that emerald crabs are controlling the algae but not eliminating it completely.

Lately I've noticed that valonia has gone into high gear suddenly in my 120. It started happening when I switched food to Rod's Food. Rod's Food must be very rich because I am feeding the tank with the usual volume of frozen food. Emerald crabs are not keeping up with the outbreak. I have cut down on the amount of Rod's Food as I switched my tank to 180.

As Nicole pointed out, there is an underlying cause for algae outbreaks. In my case it's usually overfeeding. For some people it's probably too high of a bio load exceeding the filtering capacity of live rocks/sand and a skimmer.
 
I think we will stay away from the crab for now. We think our problem is from over feeding our fish. What do you think about a lettuce nudibranch. I read that they eat hair algae and do not harm anything else in the tank.
 
Nudibranch is a bit tricky. They don't seem to ship well, and they tend to get caught on a powerhead or dissappear for no apparent reason.

I have had a good luck in the past with sea hare - dolabella variety.

I prefer Mexican Turbo snails. They are amazing grazers. Their warm water cousins are good, too.

Eric Borneman recommends keeping a good number of grazers to control algae. "'Putting more cows out to pasture' to overcome the rising crop of algae".
 
Well, I do not know anything about Lettuce Nudibranch, but we bougth 2 Nudibranch that ate Aptasia and did not see them again for about 2 months, then all the sudden all our Aptasis was gone and I had lots of Nudibranch.
Aquarium020.jpg
 
Again, I do not know anything about Lettuce NUdi., but I know that I bought 2 Nubibrach for our Aptasia problem that we had been having a problem with for over a year. We had used many methods, but no success, then after about 2 months of never seeing them we had no Aptsia and lots of Nudibranch. We sold some and traded some for corals.
 
tell Bill to stop with the full menu everynight...Jimmy,Bruce and family will get over it and they could stand to shed a few ounces cause if they keep growing....you'll have to get a "BIGGER" tank again and we know how that was for you guys when you up'd from the 75g to the 180g:twitch:
 
Yea, I am already saying I should have gone 500, and Bill looks at me crazy :fun2:
These crazy fish have already outgrown this tank.
 
I'd look at you crazi too...LOL..it's not like you did the plumbin or stuff and he already gets stressed when things aren't goin like he thought with all his new gadgets..anyhow, I dont think ya really want to add the crab and risk it consuming something you really like cause I'm here to tell ya now.."I'm" not takin it when it does..
~refreshing Big Girl's memoery~~RBTA...traveling salesman, Kenya...well let's just say it's not singular anymore always havin to pull the weeds out like in a flowerbed

Besides, you can always make the same mistake I did in the begining it worked for me but you know the problems it has led to with the plumbing and all and I'm just now gettin satisfied with the clairity of my tank :artist:
 
Someone pointed out to me that my nitrates could be high in my tank (probably from overfeeding too), but it wasn't showing up on my tests. Nitrates tested normal because the hair algea was using it. I read about pros and cons of lettuce nudis and sea hares and thought I would start with the cheapest method, small weekly water changes with good RODI. I can say going into my 3rd small weekly water change I see a HUGE difference. Just wanted to pass along a little of my relief!!!YEAH!!!!:dance:
 
+on the nitrates not testing correctly due to the algea...same thing was happing to me with my test until I ( Like an idiot) used some algea fix ..it worked but it also led to many other problems)now I've cut back on feeding and started to thaw the mysis out and rinsing it before I feed it, not saying that it in itself has kept me from having GHA again but I'm thinking it's was a positive step for me now I do get what I believe to be a true nitrate reading around 10:eek1:
 
Small daily water changes have helped for now. I think everybody would agree that if you over feed you need to do more frequent water changes
 
Soemthing that that might help is adding kalkwasser. I dump Ms. Wage's Pickling Lime into my top off bin and mix it up. The water won't over saturate, so the extra precipitates out and settles (to be remixed the next time I fill my top off bin). Kalkwasser helps bind PO4 out through skimming. Looking for accumulated areas of detritus and removing with water changes helps, too (includes sumps, etc.).
 
gflat,
hope you can come to the meeting next Sunday and look at our tank and give us some help with lots of questions that we have!!!!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
50 Gallon Stocking Help
2
Replies
21
Views
1K
Urka
U
M
Free Family of Gorilla Crabs
Replies
0
Views
372
macdaddynick1
M
ClownBubbaJoe
Large Crab For Special Tank And Few Fish & Plants ?
Replies
3
Views
630
griss
griss
Paul B
How Fish are Different from most of us
Replies
1
Views
288
Paul B
Paul B
Paul B
Think like a fish
Replies
1
Views
394
Vinny Kreyling
Vinny Kreyling
Back
Top